Photo Albums

July 30, 2016

Ignoring for a second that I'm over a year behind in posting on this blog, (can I blame it on riding solo for the year Dan was in Korea?) let's take a minute to take a little tour of our new place in LA. At first I was a bit worried about downsizing, but I have really fallen in love with our new space and having less square feet to clean every week doesn't hurt my feelings any!

The kitchen is easily my favorite part of the house, which is a good thing since it's the hub of every home we've made. I spend a lot of time in my kitchen cooking, baking and decorating cakes, entertaining, and even working on crafts, so the kitchen is the most important thing I look for in a house. I was a little nervous when we first started looking at LA listings, since the homes here are older and smaller than what I'd gotten used to in Washington, but the second I saw this kitchen, I wanted this house. It has a pretty similar layout to my old kitchen, which is lovely, and lots of storage space for my collection of dishes and cooking essentials. This is the one room I didn't have to do any downsizing in haha!

It's a bit of a tone reversal from my old kitchen with light floors and cabinets and the dark counters! One of the fun things about moving as frequently as we have is you get to try out different styles. By the time we land in our "forever home" I'll know exactly what I want! I like having the glass front cabinets to display my wine glasses and white service items.

I love having this little cabinet next to the bar to display some of my cake plates as a little nod to my hobby. The lower cabinet houses all of the boys' arts and craft supplies quite nicely. I'll have to do a follow up post on storage and organization in this house because it was so much fun to be creative with how we fit everything in.

One of the things I love about this home is all the windows and natural light.

Our dining room has a perfect little nook for the buffet, which was all that came with us from our old formal dining room. Glass is so much more kid friendly than wood, I think (using a razor blade to scrape Mod Podge off without causing any damage FTW!), so we sold our wood-top formal dining table and just brought the dinette. It is actually the first piece of furniture we picked out when we were newlyweds and one of the few items that has survived the evolution of my taste in decor over the last decade, so I'm kind of fond of it!

And since we got rid of our formal dining table, I decided to buy a new outside table to take its place. I plan to enjoy our two years as Californians as much as possible which includes lots of dining al fresco, even at home. I am already fantasizing about Christmas dinner on the patio in our flip flops!

On to the living room. I feel like the living room looks a little generic still, probably because I don't have any family pictures up or little personal touches yet, but it is airy and un-cluttered, which I do really like. I'll miss my big fat white fireplace mantle to decorate at Christmas, but I like the charm of this brick fireplace.

Those bay windows, though!

You can see the front door and entry in this pic. I'm debating hanging some curtains on the wall that frames the bay window, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

My entry table fits! I don't know what it is, but I just love having an entry table to welcome people in to my home and decorate for various holidays.

Powder room off the entry area.

The master bedroom has three windows (again - awesome natural light in this house), but it still feels private and secluded because of its location in the house and the greenery in the back yard that surrounds it. Lucas gives it two thumbs up!

Very cozy!

Dan's office is cluttered with books and Army gear at the moment, so no pictures of that room for now, but I will note that we have his and hers closets... not it the master bedroom. No, I claimed the big master closet and he is using the closet in his office, which is actually quite roomy and very nicely organized by that Type-A man of mine! I thought it would be a pain for him at first, but he likes having his own separate closet quite a bit, I think! He does have a chest of drawers in the master, which I painted before we left Washington. It used to be a honey finish chest which was part of his bedroom set from growing up, but I painted it and put some knew knobs on it to make it blend a little better in our room. I still need to stop to pick up one more set of knobs for that double top drawer. I didn't count right when I made my first trip to the hardware store ha!

The master bath is nice and roomy with plenty of drawers for storage!

The boys' bathroom only has a shower, so they actually do their bath in the master, but we have a good system to clean up and put away all the bath toys and mat after they're all done, so it hasn't overwhelmed our grown up space. :)

I love the shower. If California wasn't in a severe drought I could just stand in there in the stream for half an hour.

Losing my laundry room and cabinets for craft and sewing supplies had me kind of bummed, but our laundry area has actually worked out better than I thought for storage. Bigger things like my sewing machine and crate of craft paper had to be moved to the linen closet, but pretty much everything else fit in the upper cabinets. I did have to get a little creative and store my spools of ribbon, twine and washi tape in decorative jars!

The boys' vanity with the shower to the left, which will probably only be used by guests over the next two years since Lucas refuses to have water spray in his face :)

The boys' shared room is actually the largest bedroom in the house, though the closet is smaller than the master. We went from a house that had no toys in the bedrooms (most was housed in the family room), to now having every last toy they own stored in their room. So between combining the boys from separate rooms to a shared room and moving the toys out of the living area, the extra space in their room is perfect. Before we left Washington, I purchased the 16 cube storage cabinet from Ikea, which replaced the white armoire and smaller cube storage cabinet we had for toys. We are storing the furniture from Lucas and Paul's individual rooms for now, since the plan is to put them back in their own rooms after our two years here are done. I picked up the white dresser, also from Ikea, which is quite a bit larger than their individual dressers, so it houses all their shorts, undies/diapers, and pants in one piece of furniture instead of two.

The blue bunk beds! Paul only lasted a week in the crib before he started crawling out with proficiency, but the toddler bed has been working really well. Eventually we will just convert it to a standard bunk bed with another twin on bottom, but for now I want to feel I've gotten some use out of the crib I painstakingly painted all the rails on! It's also nice to have that extra space to store a toy box. I had planned to do layered bed linens similar to what Lucas had in Washington, with the rugby striped comfortor folded back on the plaid quilt, but after sweating through just trying to get everything on that top bunk, I decided to just stick to one layer. Much easier to make the bed every day! Paul got matching toddler linens for his bed. Thank goodness for Pottery Barn keeping this print in stock for so long!

Our little corner for book time.

And that's the house! Well, except for Dan's office. I'll have to update with pictures of that later.

Dan was working on Easter Sunday, so we bumped our back yard hunt up to Saturday with the boys.

Of course the first thing you have to do to get ready for the hunt is color the eggs! I love doing holiday traditions like Easter eggs with Lucas now that he's big enough to really get excited about all these little things. He was so thrilled to watch the water change with each tab he put in.

What color will it be?

WHOOAAAAAH! My egg is PINK!

Lucas picked out a space themed decorating kit and he was pretty thrilled to play with everything.

Lucas and Dan worked on decorating the eggs while I put Paul to sleep and they had such a great time. He was so pleased with his finished product!

Paul and his cheeks all ready for bed.

Watching his big brother at first to get the hang of this whole egg hunt thing.

Lucas is a pro

Lucas helped Paul get a few eggs, which he then put in and out, in and out of his basket.

There's some more!

It was a successful hunt!

The boys checking out their loot.

Their little table all set up for brunch.

And the big table looking very festive, too.

My little bunnies all ready for bed on Saturday night.

My dapper dudes before church. Happy Easter from the Nelson boys!

After practicing with our hunt at home the day before, Paul really had the hang of things for our easter egg hunt at church

]

Team Nelson getting some eggs!

After church we went up to the park for a little bit with our girl while we waited for daddy to get home.

My sweet little boy.

The Easter Bunny usually leaves baskets overnight, but this year he was nice enough to wait for Dan to get home to make a special delivery right to our front porch.

The doorbell rang and I had Lucas peek out the window to see what it was. He was so excited when he spied his and Paul's Easter baskets!

The boys had to take a peek out the window after retrieving their baskets to see if they could find the Easter Bunny making a run for it after ringing our doorbell. He must be pretty fast!

Paul was more interested in the grass in his basket than he was in any of his goodies!

My tulip centerpiece bloomed on Sunday right in time for Easter dinner. I love tulips!

I know I'm biased because he's mine, but this little guy is growing into such a handsome little boy. There's not a lot of baby left in his face, which makes me a little sad sometimes, but I'm so proud of the little gent he is becoming.

Our last full day in Houston, we were able to explore the NASA Space Center. It was really neat to see everything - I just wish we'd had more time to do it all.

While waiting in line for tickets, it was apparent my little Washington babies weren't well equipped for the Texas sunshine and heat!

Whoa! Look at those big teeth!

Not exactly related to real space exploration, but Lucas was pretty excited to see his favorite alien, Bumblebee!

Daddy and Lucas heading into Space Shuttle Adventure

It was really neat to see some of the crafts, tools and other items used on real missions, and Lucas thought everything was pretty awesome. Of course, since this was the day Dan had skipped the conference to join us, my favorite part was just being there with him.

I think the boys would agree.

Of course, the highlight of the trip was getting to join the Bairds for dinner on our last evening in town. It does my heart good to spend time with my besties, and it's even sweeter to join our two families together and see all the love bouncing around.

July 28, 2015

On Friday, we had a full and busy day at the Houston Zoo and the Children's Museum of Houston.

We had to circle around to find parking for the zoo and my ever-perceptive Lucas took notice. At the end of our day at the zoo, he said, "Mama, I'm so glad you found a parking spot. It was a fun day!" I'm glad too!

Visiting my favorite - the gorgeous elephants!

Sweet boy really loved trucking around on this squishy floor in the kiddie play area.

After our adventures at the zoo, we made our way over to the Children's Museum of Houston to meet up with Brianne and the twins. It was so wonderful to meet Gemma and Jansen! They are so adorable and the boys had such a fun afternoon playing with them. Of course, I was thrilled to death to spend some time with Bri in between chasing our little ones around. Funny how much things have changed in the last few years for us! It's so much fun to see your best friends become parents and all the wonderful things that come with that stage of life. Nothing better!

Paul and Gemma strolling around together.

The Nelson boys and Baird twins in action in the Japanese room of the museum!

We had a truly fantastic day, especially hanging with Bri and the kids! In the evening, Dan and the boys and I had a super yummy dinner at Guadalajara Hacienda in downtown Houston. I also got to enjoy probably the best margarita I've had in years! I almost had two, but I legitimately think I wouldn't have been able to walk home safely if I'd had more than just the one. It was goooood!

July 27, 2015

We took a family trip to Houston for the Society of Surgical Oncology conference in March and we had the best time! We arrived on Wednesday in the afternoon and our first day was mostly spent traveling, getting settled in our hotel and enjoying some yummy Houston BBQ for dinner.

On Thursday while Dan was at the conference, the boys and I ventured downtown to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences to check out some dinosaur bones for Lucas' 4th birthday.

Happy birthday to my 4 year old dinosaur nut! He had the perfect shirt for celebrating his special day!

We really, really enjoyed this museum. I thought it was nice the way the bones were set up with a visual representation of each animal behind them.

I love that Lucas had his two favorite dinosaurs in his hands the whole time we walked through the hall of paleontology.

We had lunch at the museum and I was a little surprised to find the only offering they had was a McDonald's. I've never been to a museum with a fast food restaurant inside!

The boys

We made a couple of loops to see the dinosaurs and also visited the other exhibits and watched the dinosaur film at the museum theater before we called it a day. I told Lucas he could pick one thing out at the museum gift shop for his birthday and he was thrilled to death to get this dinosaur grabber toy. I was thrilled that we walked out of a museum gift shop having spent less than $5!

It was such a nice day, so we strolled around the gardens surrounding the museum for a while before heading back to the hotel.

Paul was being so silly! He did so great all day hanging out in the stroller! He was definitely eager to stretch his legs as we walked outside, though.

We found a fountain and Lucas made a wish with his penny.

"What did you wish for, bud?"

"A monster truck."

Oh my little 4-year old boy. You are such a big personality and bright light in our lives! You are sweet, compassionate, smart, and hilarious and I love watching you grow! We are so lucky to have such an amazing boy!

Mama and the birthday boy.

We grabbed dinner and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room and having a mini celebration for Lucas' birthday. We might have been away from home, but I brought a few goodies to make it festive in our hotel room! We picked up cupcakes and a candle and made it a birthday to remember!

Crazy boy!

We even put balloons in the bath for their tubby time! Lucas was singing, "a party in the tub, a party in the tub, heigh-ho, the Derry-o, a party in the tub."

It was a great time vacationing and celebrating our little guy's birthday!

Lucas was special helper in class right before his birthday, so we brought in a snack and a treat for the kids to celebrate. His class was learning about worms and dirt that day, so Lucas and I made dirt cups - pudding topped with crushed up Oreos and finished with a gummy worm. I think the last time I made dirt cups I was maybe 6 or 7! It was a lot of fun. I had a great time volunteering in his class and watching him learn and interact with his friends. Paul was along for the ride in the Ergo all day and I think he had a fun time watching all the big guys!

As the little brother, you expect to get some old clothes handed down to you... but this shirt is about 34 years old! I love putting the boys in their daddy's old clothes! This shirt didn't work for Lucas, but "little brother" Paul sure wears it well!

Our friend and fellow Fit4Mom-er, Patti, is married to a fireman, so she graciously arranged for a special class at his fire station on a Saturday. We had such a great time and the kids loved seeing the fire trucks up close.

Lucas' little face when they pulled the truck in was just the best!

He got a bit of a scare when they turned on the siren as he was climbing up into the cab, so after that he was a little leery of getting on or in, but he really enjoyed checking everything out!